Alternate Episode 6X10- Game Over Charles
by willowrose25
Summary: For everyone that was disappointed with the A reveal and Episode 6X10 in general, this is for you. Picks up where 6X9 left off.
1. Game Over Charles

**Alternate Episode 6X10: Game Over Charles by Rose Florentine and Willow St. Thomas.**

 **Disclaimer: We do not own PLL or any of the characters mentioned here.**

Hanna angrily pressed the end button on her phone and looked at the other girls.

"No answer," She said, exasperated.

"Well try again!" Spencer exclaimed, sounding harsher than she meant to. Hanna rolled her eyes and pressed a few more buttons, lifting her phone to her ear again. Spencer watched anxiously as Hanna shook her head and opened her mouth to inform them that there was no answer again before Aria spoke up.

"You guys..." She whispered. The other girls looked to where her finger was raised, pointing shakily at a red cloaked, hooded figure standing a few feet away from them. The figure was wearing a large, beast like mask so their face was concealed but a woman's voice called out to them from under it.

"Follow me," was all it said, before turning around and starting down the hallway. They all quickly looked at one another before Spencer nodded, indicating they should follow the figure, and the four of them took off after her. The figure's pace quickly increased when it figured out the girls were behind it and they almost had to run to keep up. Finally Emily spoke up.

"What is going on?" she asked in frustration, after the figure had led them out of the building.

"Yeah," Spencer added indignantly, "Who are you?" At this question the figure stopped short, coming to a halt in front of them. With it's back still to the girls, it slowly removed the mask, tossing it to the floor and turned to face them.

The girls all let out a simultaneous gasp, a look of shock painted across all of their faces, for the figure staring back at them was none other than Maya St. Germain.

"Oh my god!" Emily choked out, her hand flying to her quickly beating heart.

"How is this possible?" Hanna asked at the same time that Aria asked "How?" But Maya simply shook her head before finally speaking up.

"I'll explain later, we don't have much time. Come on!" And with that she took off, continuing in the direction she'd been walking in before. The Liars all exchanged a look of disbelief before realizing Maya wasn't going to wait for them and quickly ran off after her.

(OPENING CREDITS)

After what felt like hours of walking, Maya stopped short at the front gates of Radley and turned back to the girls.

"Alright, this is as far as I can take you. Go inside, to the children's ward. You should find Alison there," she said quickly, as they stared at her blankly, still reeling from the shock of seeing her alive.

Spencer stepped forward, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Hold on...how do we know this isn't a trap and you're not working for Charles?" But Maya just looked over her shoulder, a sense of urgency in her voice when she answered.

"I don't have time to explain. But you have to believe me, Alison is in danger. If you guys go down there, you can help her and everyone will get out of this okay," she replied quickly.

Aria stepped up next to Spencer, nudging her arm. "What do we do?" she whispered through clenched teeth. Spencer opened her mouth to answer but didn't have a chance to before Emily pushed her way to the front of the group so she was standing right in front of Maya, eyes wide.

"I believe you," she breathed out and Maya smiled slightly in response and pushed open the Radley gate even further.

Spencer cleared her throat and held her head high with conviction, "Let's go find Ali and get out of here," She said, voice unwavering to the rest of the girls. The Liars all exchanged one last look before one by one making their way through the gate and up to the front entrance of Radley. Maya stood there momentarily, watching after them. Emily paused in front of her and opened her mouth to say something but Maya beat her to it.

"Later," she whispered, giving her a small smile.

"Emily! Come on!" Hanna called from the front entrance causing Emily's attention to snap back to her friends.

"Hold on!" She called back, but when she turned back to Maya she was already gone, disappeared off into the dark and misty night. She frowned slightly before running up the steps to Radley to catch up with her friends who were all standing there staring at the door.

"Spence, open it." Hanna hissed. Spencer glanced at her indignantly over her shoulder before stepping forward and quickly turning the nob, pushing the door open. The girls all held their breath, half expecting something to jump out of them. But nothing happened, the only thing that they could see were the dark, musty hallways of the now abandoned Radley Sanitarium. Together, the girls joined hands and started down the empty halls.

"Where did Maya say we're supposed to go?" Aria whispered, looking around, her eyes shifting from spot to spot along the walls.

"She said 'Ali's in the children's ward...that's this way, come on," Spencer whispered in reply.

"Great, since we've had such great experiences in there before," Hanna mumbled, earning a look of irritation from the other girls. "What? It's true!" she hissed. No one responded as they began to slowly make their way down the creaky hallway, all of them cringing with each creak of a step.

When they finally reached the children's ward, the door was propped open and the first thing they could make out in the dark room, lit only by the moonlight streaming in through the window, was the outline of Alison, crumpled in a heap on a tiny children's bed. The girls flew across the room, their concern taking the place of the fear that had been there seconds before.

"Ali, Ali wake up!" Emily whispered loudly, shaking Alison's sleeping form.

"Ali! Oh my god, I _really_ hope Charles didn't do anything to her," Hanna gasped, joining Emily in trying to shake Alison awake. They all sighed in relief as Ali groaned and started to stir, but seemingly remained asleep. Relief, however, that came too soon for what they didn't notice, was that a black hooded figure had also made its way into the room and was now standing stonily behind them, staring up and out of the window at the bright, full moon.

"She's waking up! What's wrong with her?" Spencer asked no one in particular, brushing Alison's hair away from her face to examine her.

"I hope she's okay," Aria said anxiously, trying to find any sort of mark on her friend's body.

"You know what they say about hope..." came a deep, icy voice from the black hooded figure, still behind them, staring out the window. The Liars all gasped and jumped, whirling around and catching sight of the hooded figure's back, all quickly backing up. All except Spencer who looked up from Ali's sleeping body, her eyes wide with a gut wrenching mixture of fear and recognition that none of the other girls could see. The hooded figure didn't move or speak again, it simply continued to look out the window, it's back to the girls.

"It breeds eternal misery," Spencer said quietly, the statement leaving her lips in a gust of a breath that was almost inaudible to anyone else in the room. She slowly turned to look at the Hooded figure along with the other girls. They heard what sounded like a dark chuckle coming from the hooded figure before it slowly turned to face them. The girls gasped again, all of their heads reeling, faces petrified in a state of horrified awe. For there, standing in front of them, a menacing smirk on his all too familiar, usually handsome face, was Doctor Wren Kingston.

Whereas usually when the girls had come "face to face" with the mysterious figure they knew as A, A had run away quickly before they had a chance to do anything, Wren stood there unmoving. His demeanor was eerily calm in a way that was both discomfiting and puzzling to the girls. It felt like hours before any of them were able to speak but finally Aria mustered up the courage to speak up.

"Charles?" she asked quietly. He moved his head in the smallest nod, his expression now stony and impossible to read. His usually warm eyes were cold and hard, with dark circles underneath them as if he hadn't slept or blinked in months.

"It's really you? It's been you this whole time?" Emily asked in disbelief. He again gave an ever so small nod, his face unchanging.

"We were your friends," Spencer said, her voice wavering, her eyes misty with the beginnings of tears. At the sound of this, his face faltered and for just a moment, so quick that if one blinked they would miss it, he wore an expression of worry and concern. But as quickly as it had come, it was gone as Hanna spoke angrily to him.

"So all the times you helped us, you were actually trying to hurt us?" she exclaimed. He glared at her, still not speaking or moving.

"All those times you saved us, you were actually the one making bad things happen in the first place?" Emily added growing increasingly angry which each word. Hanna interjected again.

" _Because YOU'RE A."_

"You forgot he, she, it, bitch..." The girls all jumped slightly at the sound of his voice, his usual British accent now gone, replaced with a slow, even toned, grizzly drawl.

They stood there stunned, none of them able to think of anything to say until Spencer took a deep shaky breath, stepping forward and looking him directly in the eyes.

"Why?" She asked, trying to sound confident but failing. The same look of concern that crossed his visage the last time she spoke came back and he also took a step forward. Spencer stood her ground and tried not to look scared at his movement towards her.

"Spencer, I swear I never meant to hurt you. I never wanted anything to happen to you. Like I told you before...my biggest mistake was falling for the wrong sister," he said, his voice raising not with anger, but with fervor. At his words, she instinctively drew back, overwhelmed by the fanatical tone in his previously lifeless voice.

His face fell as it always had whenever he felt Spencer slipped through his fingers. He stood there staring at her before Hanna stepped in front of her, speaking up again.

"Hold on...how do you even know Alison?" She demanded, arms crossed, having snapped out of her initial surprise. He was about to answer when Alison, now awake, spoke up from behind them.

"He was my doctor," All the girls turned to look at her and Wren's eyes shifted from Spencer to Alison, looking almost as startled as they were to see her awake, "You know that doctor Em? The one I told you could get you the pill without letting your parents know...that was him. I met him right before he started his residency at Rosewood Hospital," Alison continued, walking forward towards Wren and stopping when she was at level with the girls.

"Was that even true?" she asked, her voice full of both confusion and hurt.

"Not entirely..." he replied, his tone softening but in a different way than it had with Spencer. He didn't sound nearly as threatening as he had when he'd spoken before.

"When I met you, you told me your name was Wren Kingston. And now you're saying it's Charles DiLaurentis? So which is it?" Alison asked. She, unlike the rest of the girls didn't seem nearly as scared and they all backed up as if they could hide behind her.

"I killed Charles DiLaurentis a long time ago. When I- When he was sixteen he needed to die so that Wren Kingston could come to life. Charles' death was an ambiguous loss. Charles is gone, but I'm still here; It was a death with no body," he explained slowly.

"So that grave at your aunt Carol's house? That was fake?" Emily asked. He nodded before continuing.

"As far as the rest of the world knows Charles DiLaurentis died when he was sixteen. We had to make it convincing. There was a burial the night I escaped from this place-" Aria cut him off.

"The night you escaped this place? What do you mean?"

"I spent my whole childhood in this place, wondering why I was here...what I did to deserve it. Monsters aren't born, they're created," at saying this he turned to address Alison directly, "Your father always had a hard time understanding that."

"My father? You mean our father?" Ali asked confused. He shook his head.

"No. Like you and Jason, you and I only share a mother. I didn't know much about my dad. He killed himself when I was very young," he answered. All of the girls were too busy processing what he had just said to notice when he glanced at Aria out of the corner of his eye.

"Wait, I'm confused. If Mrs. D was your mom and you grew up with Kenneth being your dad..." Hanna started.

"My mom was already married to Kenneth when she had me. She was having an affair with my father whose wife had just left him and already had a daughter," he finished for her.

 _Flashback: A woman in a red cardigan holds hands with a girl of about 6 years old. A tall, brown haired man, tosses a young boy of about 4 in the air playfully. When the man catches the boy, he lifts him onto a cream colored horse, fastening him into the saddle._

 _"I want to ride Custard too!" The girl exclaims. The man smiles at her and picks her up, placing her on the horse behind the boy. He begins leading the children around a small paddock, the woman watching gleefully from the front of the red barn._

 _End Flashback_

"I thought we were a family. Me, mom, my real dad, and my half sister...Bethany," he said quietly, looking dazed as if his mind was somewhere else in time.

"Wait, Bethany? Bethany Young was your half sister?" Spencer asked. He nodded at her and Aria frowned in confusion.

"But wasn't Bethany at Radley?" she questioned.

"Our dad killed himself when she was ten. There was no one to take care of her, so she was put in foster care. She was only there for a few months before the incident happened," a grave expression crossed his face.

"What incident?" Alison asked, shifting uneasily.

 _Flashback: Bethany fire incident_

"The incident that got her sent to Radley. I still remember her screaming for me while mom carried me off the day they took her," he said, a reminiscent and sad look on his face.

"So Mona was right...you guys knew each other when you were in here. Did you guys escape together?" Emily asked.

"No. No, we didn't escape together. I was here for ten years, ten long years, when all I wanted was to be back with my family. The only people that ever visited me were mom and Aunt Carol. And we all knew that I could never just go back to being a part of the family...so when I was sixteen we came up with the plan for me to fake my death. Mom helped me, she snuck me out in the night and took me to Aunt Carol's. I stayed there for a few years until she passed away...mom said I could use Carol's and Charles' life insurance money to get out of Rosewood. So I did,"

"And you became Wren Kingston?" Spencer asked hoarsely. He glanced over at her quickly and nodded.

"I'd always wanted to see Europe. Mom and Kenneth took you two there, and she brought me back some post cards," Wren said to Alison, chuckling darkly and shaking his head.

"So I went. I traveled to England with the money I was getting from the Carisimi group I started over. Wren Kingston was exactly who I wanted to be," upon saying this a slow smile spread across his face as he slipped back into the familiar British accent they were so used to hearing from him, "He was smart, charming, a med student..." he dropped the accent again and his smile faded, "I really thought I'd escaped Rosewood. Until my second to last year at Oxford, I met Melissa,"

"She told me that she grew up in Rosewood, and about her family and her sister. That her sister was friends with a trouble maker of a girl she didn't like...a girl named Alison DiLaurentis. When I heard that, it was like all the progress I'd made starting over flew out the window. I thought 'this is perfect! This is my chance to get back to my family, introduce myself as someone else! Get them to like me, help Alison," He said, his words growing louder and louder, a manic sort of excitement in his voice.

"Melissa and I were just friends for the first year that we knew each other. Hearing her talk about Rosewood struck a chord and made me want to come back. So that summer when she went to Cape May, I came back with her and rented an apartment in Ravenswood. Melissa was busy so I didn't see her much and because I was in med school, I was able to intern at Rosewood hospital,"

"Where you met me," Ali interjected quietly. He nodded.

"We were friends, Wre- Charles. I trusted you," Alison said. He rolled his eyes and glared back at her.

"You used me," he snapped snidely. She drew back a little, growing pale at his tone of voice but then quickly regaining composure.

"Used you? What? I thought you were my doctor! How is that using you?" He laughed without humor and shook his head .

"You made me think we were friends, you-"

"We were friends!" she exclaimed and he rolled his eyes.

"You were only nice to me when you wanted something and then when you didn't need my services you acted like I didn't exist!" he yelled.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, her voice raising in frustration.

"You'd ditch plans, make excuses. Or like that time you invited me to that fraternity party, I showed up and you didn't even acknowledge me. You were too busy chatting up the cops to get what you wanted, as always," he said icily.

"Wait, wait, Ian's frat party? You were there?" Spencer asked.

"But we were all there, we didn't see you..." Hanna added.

"Well you didn't know me..." he replied.

"Nobody knew you! So you were just there that summer to anonymously spy on Alison? A nameless, faceless creep? That's the whole reason you came back?" Hanna asked, crossing her arms and glaring at him.

"Not entirely. A few weeks before I came back I'd written to Bethany who was still in Radley. I felt...terrible about leaving her in there all alone with no warning. So I told her I would help her break out right before I went back to school, which was labor day weekend," he said, his eyes now shifting to the floor. The girls all gasped and stared at him. He sighed and looked back up at them.

"That night, I met Bethany outside Radley. I'd given her instructions on a secret way out that I'd discovered when I was still there. We'd talked about her coming back to England with me to live there while I finished school. But when we met up, she had other plans. As soon as she got outside, I could tell something was wrong. When I asked what was wrong she started screaming about how she'd been framed. About how 'the bitch who framed her was gonna pay with her life'. I couldn't calm her down, she kept getting angrier and angrier. She started pacing, she wouldn't look at me, it was like she was having a very heated argument with someone that wasn't there... and when I looked into her eyes," he paused and cringed, "She looked soulless,".

"The next thing I knew, she took off running. I tried to catch up with her, but I lost her when she ran into some brush. I knew the direction she was going though," at saying this he paused and took a deep breath, looking down at his feet.

"When I got to the house, I saw her standing in the yard, staring up at mom and...and I panicked. Before I even knew what I was doing I picked up a rock and," his voice cracked and he squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them, his eyes were shining with unshed tears as he looked at the girls.

"I didn't even realize what was happening. All I could think about was saving mom. She was the only person in my life who'd ever cared about me and I couldn't let Bethany take her away. So I took the rock and I hit her, as hard as I could. Except it wasn't Bethany...it was you," he said, his voice shaking as he started to take a step towards Alison but thought better of it and stepped back.

The girls stared back at him stunned, none of them knowing what to say.

"When I realized it was you...I didn't know what to do. Mom ran outside and started screaming. Asking me what I'd done over and over again and all I could do was just sit there and say I was sorry," his voice was distressed as he explained. He paused again, composing himself before continuing.

"I'm so sorry Alison," he choked out quietly. Alison stared back at him, a mixture of fear and concern on her face. "I never meant to hurt you. You were always my favorite doll. When you ran away, I spent so long thinking you were dead and it was all my fault. So when you were gone my fear and my jealousy drove to to find new dolls to play the game with," he glanced at the girls momentarily and they all felt uneasy.

"And once you start playing the game," he continued, a small smile now making its way onto his previously sullen face, "It's like an addiction. You can't stop. You don't want to stop," his smile widened and he tilted his head to the side looking at all of them now eerily calm, almost gleeful. "What can I say? We've all got baggage,".

"So it was you from the beginning? It was you sending me those texts that summer?" Alison asked. He shook his head and began slowly pacing in front of them.

"No, no I didn't take the game from Mona until she'd landed herself in Radley. I knew she'd be vulnerable without her team so I started volunteering to get information from her. She seemed to be the only one who knew anything about what was going on with Alison, or with all of you for that matter. When Mona was A, I was just another pawn on her team, she'd tell me everything. But when she got put in Radley, the information stopped, so I had no choice but to take the game right out from under her. The last piece of information she ever gave me was that Alison was alive. That was enough to raise the stakes of the game and bring it to another level,".

The girls were all quiet as the processed his every word, none of them knowing what to say as they tried to make sense of it all. After what seemed like hours of silence, they all jumped slightly as Spencer took a step forward.

"Your dolls? We were your _dolls_?" she asked angrily. "So I was just a doll? Every conversation we had, all the time we spent together...I was a _doll_ to you?" she snapped. His smile disappeared and he stood up a little straighter.

"Spencer, I-" but before he could say anything else a loud alarm, similar to the one in the dollhouse sounded, causing all of them to cover their ears and look around wildly. He took a step back, eyes wide with fear.

"What's going on?" Emily shouted to be heard above the noise.

"She's coming. She's coming for me, I can't be here!" he exclaimed, looking out the window frantically. When he looked back, he was even more terrified than before.

"What? What's out there?" Aria asked, but he didn't answer, just continued to cover his ears and nervously pace around the room, almost as if he didn't even realize they were there anymore. The girls all ran to the window, trying to look out but they were blinded when a bright white light flashed, causing all of their vision to be hazy and spotty as they looked back into the dark room. Once their eyes had adjusted again and they were able to see, their confusion grew even more. Charles was gone.

The girls looked around wildly, desperately trying to see where Charles had gone but he was nowhere to be found.

"Where did he go?" Alison exclaimed.

"I don't know, but we've gotta get out of here!" Hanna called back. They all ran in a huddle out the door and back down the hallway towards the front of Radley. The alarm was still sounding, and the sense of urgency the girls were feeling grew stronger and stronger as time went on. When they finally made it outside, the alarm stopped and their eyes flew to the front of the gate where a figure in a black trench coat stood waiting. But this time they could see the figure's face perfectly clear.

"Mona?" Hanna called out confused. The rest of the girls looked at Mona as well and she beckoned for them to come quickly. They jogged over to her, bewildered.

"Mona, what are you doing here?" Aria asked.

"I'll explain when we get there, get in the car," was all she said, before turning and walking over to a black SUV with the high beams pointed directly at the window of the room they'd been in with Charles. They all looked at one another, still not sure what was going on.

"I said get in!" Mona exclaimed from the car.

"Do we trust her?" Emily whispered. Spencer nodded and started walking to the car.

"We have no choice."

The girls all piled into the car and as soon as the doors were shut, Mona took off at top speed, the Liars lurching forward as she drove.

"Mona, can you at least tell us where we're going?" Hanna asked irritably as she clung onto Spencer with one hand and the car seat with the other for dear life in the back seat.

"You'll see when we get there," Mona said in a monotone, increasing her speed.

"You guys where do you think Wren went?" Spencer asked quietly as they sped along the main road.

"You mean Charles?" Aria hissed. Spencer said nothing and exchanged a worried look with Alison. No one said anything again until Mona swerved into the school parking lot, pulling into a spot close to the building.

"Why are we back at school?" Emily asked but Mona ignored her and was already getting out of the car. The girls all scrambled after her and into the building but she wasn't headed back towards prom. They followed her up a flight of stairs and into the same secluded chemistry classroom that Emily had gone up to with Toby at their junior year homecoming.

When they all filed in, Mona turned on the light and gasped, clutching her chest then glaring.

"You scared me. I thought I told you to wait at the house!" she snapped, sounding just like the old Mona. The girls turned to see who she was talking to and came face to face with Maya for the second time that night.

"I felt like I should be here," she replied evenly. Mona rolled her eyes and pulled down a shutter over the small window in the door so no one could see into it. She spun around on her heal and smirked at the Liars.

"Have a seat," she said. They all sat down and Maya walked up to the front of room and stood next to Mona.

"You're welcome for saving you by the way," Mona said, arching an eyebrow at them and crossing her arms.

"Saving us? He wasn't doing anything!" Alison cried and Mona rolled her eyes again.

"Ok, seriously I know he's your brother but he's Dr. Psycho," Alison glared at her but said nothing, probably because she couldn't argue with it.

"Were you the one who set off the alarm?" Hanna asked. A strange frown crossed Mona's face, her calm demeanor changing a little.

"No that wasn't us. I got there right before it went off. Lucky timing though I guess," she laughed nervously and Maya shot her a weird, meaningful look.

"So you weren't the one he was scared of?" Spencer asked. Maya looked at Spencer quickly.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"When the alarm came...Wre- I mean Charles freaked out. He seemed really scared he said 'she' was coming to get him..." Spencer explained slowly. Maya looked at Mona worriedly.

"Do you think it's-" Mona cut her off.

"Of course it's her!" she snapped.

"Who are you guys talking about?" Hanna asked frustratedly. Neither of them said anything.

"Someone explain what's going on! Maya, where have you been this whole time?" Emily asked, leaning forward in her chair. Maya looked at Mona as if asking her to explain but Mona just gestured to the girls in response. Maya took a deep breath and turned towards them.

"I've known about Charles for a really, really long time," she said. They all started to open their mouths to respond but she held up a hand. "Just let me explain and then I promise I'll answer your questions," she said. They all sat back in the chairs and she started again.

"Emily, when you told me about Alison...how infamous she was, I got curious. So I started looking around the house. The first thing I found was a box in a vent with weird notes and voodoo dolls...it only made me more curious. So I started looking other places. One day I found a picture of two boys and a girl. I knew you'd said it was only Jason and Alison so I started investigating. Asking around town, talking to the guys to see if it was any of them. I thought it might have been Noel Kahn for a while but that ended up being a dead end," she explained.

"When I thought I was getting really close...I started getting these texts warning me to back off or I'd regret it. I'd started talking to Mona during my investigation and told her about the texts...that only made them get more threatening. Then they started threatening you Em," she glanced up at Emily who was watching her transfixed.

"Mona told me the only way out of it would be to disappear. Make whoever it was think I was dead so they'd leave me alone. So that's what we did," Maya said quietly. She looked sad and ashamed but Mona just stood there, her expression unreadable.

"I tried to give you guys a clue...Miss Aria, You're a Killer, Not Ezra's Wife," Mona said flatly. Aria cringed slightly and then remembered it was a code.

"Maya knew..." she breathed. Mona smirked and nodded.

"So you've just been hiding this whole time?" Emily asked angrily. Maya shook her head.

"No, unfortunately I haven't been hiding. The plan was for me to fake my death and run away, go live somewhere else. But it got...intercepted. I was staying at Noel's cabin...he said I could hide out there even though he didn't know why. The night that we'd planned to fake everything, I was getting on my bike to leave for the bus station when someone grabbed me and threw me into a car. It was Charles and a girl. But the whole time, I never saw what she looked like...she always wore a mask of Alison's took me to this- this bunker and held me in a weird replica of Alison's room. It was horrible," a look of pained terror crossed her face.

"They'd sometimes go days without giving me food or water. And when they did, he would come in, drop it on the ground, and walk right back out. He kept telling me eventually he wouldn't need me anymore. That he'd have a doll to occupy the room soon. I thought he was going to kill me," her voice was now barely above a whisper.

"Was that you who carved the note in the closet?" Spencer asked. Maya nodded solemnly.

"I didn't know what was going to happen to me, so I put that there just in case it was too late for me when someone found it,"

"How did you escape?" Emily asked.

"I didn't escape until the morning after you guys did. When the cops came and you guys got out, Charles and the girl in the mask ran. I could hear them arguing from the room they kept me in and when I didn't hear them for a while I tried opening the door. It was unlocked. So I ran as fast as I could and caught a bus to Philly. I figured Charles and Mask girl wouldn't look there. I called Mona from a pay phone and she came and met me there, paid for a hotel..." she said, looking gratefully at Mona.

"Well it was the least I could do. I'm sorry about leaving you there..." Mona replied, sympathy evident in her voice.

"Is that the spa retreat you were on?" Hanna asked Mona who nodded.

"Wait, wait, wait...you guys _saw_ each other in the dollhouse?" Spencer asked.

"When Charles took me to the dollhouse, he threw us in Alison's room together for one night. I was...shocked to see her in there," Mona explained.

"Then the morning after Mona got there, he took me and put me in a tiny room. It looked like a cell or something. After that we'd occasionally hear each other or get put in the hole at the same time...but that was it," Maya said. Everyone sat there for a moment, soaking in all the new information before Hanna spoke up.

"Wait, so Mona...were you never A? Did Charles frame you?" she asked. Mona shook her head gravely.

"No I was A. In the beginning at least. I had my own team...me, Lucas, Cece...and Wren," they all stared at her in shock and she shrugged.

" _He_ approached _me_ and offered to help. He told me who he was...that his real name was Charles DiLaurentis but that no one else could know...that I should still call him Wren. At first I thought he was a loyal follower just like everyone else. I never had him do much, he'd just report things he saw around town. I didn't think anything was weird with him until-" she hesitated and stopped talking.

"Until what?" all the girls asked at once. She looked back at them and sighed.

"Until he killed Ian," They all gaped at her.

"Wren killed Ian?" Aria asked. Mona nodded.

"Why?" Spencer exclaimed.

"He said it was because of what he tried to do to you, Spencer. In the church. He was there that night, he heard everything Ian said to you. So he took Ian's plan and executed it himself. Ian wasn't dead when he left the church that night, Wren took him to that barn and killed him. Then made it look like he committed suicide over the guilt about Alison," Spencer stared at her stunned, her mouth opening and closing but no words coming out. Mona didn't wait for Spencer to recover from her shock before she continued.

"That's when I started to get suspicious of him. And then the next thing I knew, he told me he'd gotten Melissa to join the team," Spencer's already shocked face was ghostly white now.

"But she didn't want to! She was blackmailed into it. After Melissa and Wren found Ian, he told her that he knew it wasn't a suicide. But he didn't tell her the truth either. He told her about the team and said that the leader had killed Ian to show Melissa what they were capable of. She was angry and he said he didn't know that the leader was planning to kill Ian. Then he sent her an anonymous text saying if she didn't join the team, not only would Spencer be in danger, but everyone would find out her secret," Mona explained.

"So she _was_ trying to protect me," Spencer said, barely above a whisper. Mona nodded.

"She was. But it just got worse for her from there. When she started spending more time with Garrett, Wren got scared. I think he thought that Garrett knew about who he really was and what he was doing...so he got rid of him," Mona said. The girls' jaws dropped.

"He killed Garrett too?" Hanna asked incredulously.

"Yeah. He was trying to save his own skin, stop Melissa from finding out. But it didn't matter...she ended up finding out anyway. I'm not sure when but at some point something changed. I always assumed by the time she found out who he really was she was in too deep over her head or too scared...but that's why she's been covering for him in England," said Mona.

"Oh God, poor Melissa," Emily said quietly, looking down.

"Don't feel that bad, she's not completely innocent," Mona said, her usual tone of voice returning.

"Not completely innocent? What aren't you telling us?" Spencer asked, her voice shaking. Mona snickered at her in response.

"The truth isn't just some shining disco ball of purity, Spencer. Once you know some things, you can't unknow them...are you sure you really want to hear?" she asked.

"Yes," Spencer replied, although she didn't sound as confident as she had wanted to.

"That night, Melissa saw you standing over Bethany's body with a shovel. She freaked out and her first instinct was to protect you...by getting rid of the evidence...by burying Bethany," Spencer's eyes widened and she looked sick.

"So I k-k-killed Bethany?" she stuttered.

"All they found when they did the autopsy was that she was a seventeen year old girl who died of suffocation," Mona replied. And although she knew it was wrong, Spencer felt a flood of relief wash over her. She hadn't killed anyone.

"That's the blackmail Wren had over her. She felt horrible when she heard the autopsy results. She even sent Bethany's parents flowers...Anonymously of course. But after that it was like something snapped in her, she became Wren's sidekick...I believe you guys refer to her as Black Widow," Mona finished.

This time the girls didn't gasp or move to speak. They stared back blankly, a mixture of surprise and sympathy stirring in all of them, rendering them unable to respond. It felt like minutes of silence passed before someone spoke up again, but not about Melissa.

"Wait, so if you were A first...before Wren was...then when did that change?" Aria asked.

"When I was first in Radley, I still had the team. At that point it was me, Cece, Lucas, Wren, and Melissa. Like I said though, ever since Wren had killed Ian I had always been suspicious of him. I thought he started volunteering there so he could help with A team stuff but it turned out he was just working there to take the game out from under me. And he did..." her voice sounded eerily sad at saying this.

"After I felt that shift in power, after I _really_ knew the game was gone I started to panic. Wren and I had both been working for under the same person- Uber A, Redcoat, but I knew I wasn't second in command anymore. Redcoat and Wren broke off from the rest of us and formed their own team- a dangerous one. But it was weird- everyone kind of pretended nothing had changed. Wren even still authorized Cece to be able to visit me when I wasn't allowed visitors because I told him we were working on stuff for the Team. But we weren't. We were really trying to figure out what to do about him and in the end that bitch ended up skipping town on me and disappearing without a trace. She told me she was thinking about going to Paris, I told her not to, and she did it anyway," Mona mumbled rolling her eyes.

"So if Cece tried to take herself out of the game when it got more dangerous, why didn't you?" Hanna asked.

"I tried to...it didn't really go according to plan. For Cece, it was easy. She was simply a pawn in the Game. I wasn't so I knew just running off to Europe wasn't going to do it. I knew that in order to be free of Wren and Uber A and the Team, I would have to make them think I was dead. So I came up with the plan to fake _my_ death like I'd helped Maya and Alison do. In fact...Alison was in on it," Mona said, turning and smirking at Alison. The girls' eyes all flew to Alison who shifted in her seat uncomfortably.

"I wasn't _really_ in on it Mona. I knew you were going to but I wasn't helping," Alison shot back. Mona shrugged.

"Same difference. Anyway, I had the plan all worked out. Mike helped me...he didn't want to but when I told him I was in danger he agreed. I told him after I was safe I would get a hold of him and let him know I was okay. I can't- I can't even imagine what he must have been going through when he never heard from me," she said quietly, trailing off for a moment, but quickly regaining composure. "We set up the cameras, Mike put on the blonde wig and threw me around. We spilled my blood from the blood drive to make it look convincing, and went out to the yard. The plan was for me to run, leave, and never come back. But once I reached my backyard, _she_ was there waiting for me. Redcoat in a blonde wig, Alison mask, and all," Mona shuddered, recalling the image.

"I tried to run but she lunged at me and injected me with something and the next thing I remember after that is waking up in the dollhouse, in Ali's room with Maya,"

"So that whole time we were in there...you knew who Charles was and you didn't say anything?" Hanna exclaimed angrily, almost shouting.

"I wanted to, I really did but he threatened to kill me if I said anything. I wasn't myself in there...I felt weak. Plus I never knew who Redcoat was, just that she was a lot scarier than him. I didn't want to have to answer to her," Mona said quietly. Emily was about to answer when her phone ring, causing them to all jump. She moved to answer it and Hanna shot her a look.

"Em, don't answer it. We're kinda busy," Hanna hissed. Emily frowned as she slid the talk button.

"I have to, it's Sarah," she replied, bringing the phone to her ear.

"Hello?" she asked. The girls all watched intently, not able to hear what Sarah was saying. Emily got an alarmed look on her face.

"Sarah, what's wrong?" she asked. There was more talking on the other line and Emily stood up.

"Don't worry, we'll be right there!" she exclaimed. She looked at her friends frantically.

"What's wrong?" Alison asked, concerned.

"It's Sarah! She said she was walking back to the dance from the bathroom when someone in a black hoodie started chasing her. She's on the roof, she thinks they're gonna be there soon, we have to go!" She exclaimed.

"Em, I don't know if that's the best idea..." Aria said but Emily glared at her.

"She's in just as much danger as we are. Come on!" she exclaimed and before anyone could stop her, took off running out of the room. The girls all looked at each other and followed her out, not even noticing that Maya and Mona were still in the chemistry room when they closed the door behind them on their way to the roof.

They all ran up the stairs, pulling their dresses up to run faster, and following Emily to the roof. When they all walked out onto the rooftop though, they saw nothing.

"She told me she was up here!" Emily exclaimed, looking around wildly. A bad feeling washed over Spencer as she looked around at the dark, empty scene in front of her, and she tried to open the door from the roof back into the school, it was locked.

All of a sudden, a dark figure appeared, walking in towards the center of the railing, balancing on it, holding both arms out as if on a high rope in the circus. The figure swayed, nearly falling over the edge and let out a high pitched, dark laugh before jumping down from the railing and onto the rooftop. As the figure stepped closer to the Liars, the moonlight illuminated her and the bad feeling in the air increased.

"Sarah," Emily said sounding confused, "What are you doing?" Sarah smirked and put her hands into the pockets of the red hoodie she was wearing. She chuckled the same weird, high pitched laugh from a few seconds before.

"I've been thinking, Em...after the other night, it makes a lot more sense if you call me by my real name," she said, her eyes twinkling menacingly.

"Your real name?" Emily asked uneasily. Sarah took a step forward and extended her hand, although it was clear she didn't expect anyone to take it.

"Bethany. Bethany Young," she said, a sly smirk across her face. Her smile grew wider as she heard all the girls draw in a sharp intake of breath at her revelation.

"What? No, no Bethany is dead," Emily replied, "Melissa buried her. If that wasn't Bethany, who was it?"

"Melissa did bury me...after you hit me with the shovel," Bethany replied through clenched teeth, glaring at Spencer. "But luckily for me, Charles was watching from the woods, he got me out. But I knew that if I was going to stay out of Radley for good, I'd need a body to be Bethany. I didn't know how I was going to do it until a blonde girl on a bike rode by me and Charles. I told him to go stop her and ask her for directions...I knew she wouldn't be able to resist stopping to help the oh so handsome Charles," she said sarcastically with a snigger.

"Sure enough, she stopped to help him and while they were talking I snuck up behind her and knocked her out with a rock...she didn't even see it coming. Charles was...upset to say the least. He freaked out and started yelling at me about how it was wrong to kill an innocent person. He didn't even help me bury her, he just sat there rocking back and forth while I did it. I thought he was gonna cry," Bethany said rolling her eyes. The girls stared at her in horror and disgust.

"After they took the body into the morgue, Charles snuck in a changed the records so the name of the girl in the system was Bethany Young. She became me and I became her, I became Sarah Harvey,"

"So it was you this whole time? You're Uber A?" Emily choked out. Sarah laughed at her expression.

"Uber A? Is that what you've been calling me...well it's a little unoriginal but it works I guess," she replied cooly.

"Why? Why would you do any of this?" Alison asked, a fearful expression in her eyes.

"Because your family deserved to pay! For what they did to Charles and for what they did to me," Bethany spat back. Alison took a step backwards, but spoke up again.

"My family? We're not even related!" Alison exclaimed. Bethany shook her head and leaned back against the railing casually.

"We're not. But Charles is my brother, we have the same dad," she said.

"We know, he told us," Hanna said quickly earning a glare from Bethany.

"Oh did he?" she asked. Hanna gulped and nodded, the girls stepped closer together, forming a huddle.

"Did he tell you who our dad was?" Bethany asked. They all shook their heads in response and a slow, spiteful grin spread across Bethany's face. Her icy eyes shifted to Aria who looked back, alarmed.

"Do you want to tell them or should I?" she asked. Aria frowned and stepped closer to her friends.

"Wh-what are you talking about?" Aria asked. Bethany shrugged her shoulders.

"Suit yourself," she said, and looked back at the rest of the girls. "Mine and Charles' father was crazy. That's what everyone said at least...thankfully neither of us were given his last name. Although I guess if we were, Aria here wouldn't have been able to keep the truth from you all for so long," The girls all spun and looked at Aria who had gone pale and was staring at Bethany wide eyed and ferally. Bethany looked at Aria and blinked expectantly but she said nothing.

"No?" Bethany scoffed and rolled her eyes condescendingly. "Mine and Charles' father was Scott Montgomery," The girls all gasped and looked at Aria again. Her eyes filled with tears as she hesitantly turned to her friends.

"Is that true?" Spencer asked quietly. Aria swallowed hard and continued her wide eyed, feral stare.

"No! I mean yes, it's true but- but I swear I didn't know. I mean...I knew about Wren but I didn't know he was Charles I just knew he was my uncle Scott's son and we never talk about Scott so we never talked about Wren. I didn't even know Wren, really! But I had no idea about Bethany, I swear!" Aria blurted out, her voice fast and high pitched. Before anyone had a chance to say anything else Bethany let out a cold, callous laugh.

"No idea about Bethany? Aria...I'm hurt," she said sarcastically, touching her hand to her heart.

"I don't know you!" Aria cried, but her eyes were still frantic.

"Oh, Aria...but you do. Remember? We used to spend a lot of time together as kids. When we were in Radley," Bethany said mock sweetly.

"What is she talking about Aria?" Hanna asked angrily. Aria didn't answer and stared blankly ahead at Bethany who was grinning wickedly back.

"Miss Aria here had herself a little stint in Radley. She got there right after Charles faked his death," Bethany said, tilting her head to the side and staring down the girls. Aria didn't move a muscle, it was if she was frozen in place as Bethany kept talking.

"It was nice...having some _family_ in Radley with me again. We'd play board games and stay up late. And if I remember correctly you were quite the dancer. It was a But she wasn't there long...probably only a year or so, right cousin?" Aria winced at Bethany addressing her as cousin and Bethany chuckled darkly.

"After you left, I was all alone again. I had to watch countless people come in and out, people get released...while I had to stay in that godforsaken place for half my life! That's why I was so excited when Charles wrote to me and told me he was going to help me get out. We had planned everything out and the night was getting closer. But then that idiot made the mistake of writing to his mommy and telling her everything. That bitch Jessica already didn't like me and when she heard about his plan she came to see me. She dragged me up to the roof with her in the middle of the night so no one could hear us. She goes 'Don't you dare think about leaving with him Bethany! You're not going anywhere!'" Bethany's voice grew manic as she imitated Jessica DiLaurentis, her eyes going blank as if she were soulless.

"I fought back though, I told her that if Charles wanted to break me out that was his choice not hers. And that's when Mrs. Cavanaugh stepped out from nowhere. I never liked that woman, she was a freak. Always wandering around in her nightgown. But apparently she was more with it than I gave her credit for. She'd heard us talking about Charles and went right up to Jessica and threatened to tell everyone he was alive. Never in a million years would I have predicted what Jessica did next-" Bethany trailed off and looked harshly at Alison.

"The bitch pushed Mrs. Cavanaugh off the roof! Just reached out and pushed her. I had no idea good ol' Aunt Jessie had it in her. After that I shut up about the Charles thing. I knew he'd come for me any way and I didn't exactly feel like getting thrown off the roof," Bethany said. Alison's eyes had filled with tears and she was shaking her head in disbelief.

"No, no that can't be true. My mom wouldn't do that," Alison said. Bethany rolled her eyes and took a step forward.

"Oh but she did. And the bitch blamed me for it! She told everyone on the board I had pushed Mrs. Cavanaugh off the roof and made sure they'd never let me out. But that's not even the worst part, Alison. It would be bad enough if Mrs. Cavanaugh and your mom were just strangers but they weren't. They were sisters," Bethany hissed. Alison's jaw dropped and the girls all gaped at Bethany.

"Twins, actually. They'd never gotten along so they were estranged...but twins nonetheless. Your mom wasn't a saint, Alison. She _killed_ her own twin sister! She deserved everything she got after that," Bethany snickered. Alison stared back at her, realization crossing her face.

"Was it you..?" she asked quietly. Bethany nodded slowly, a bored expression on her face.

"You killed her!" Alison cried, lurching forward at Bethany. Spencer grabbed her and held her back, fearful for what Bethany was capable of.

"She didn't even see it coming. I found some rat poison in the Hastings' barn one night and that gave me the idea. I put it in her drink one night, that bitch liked her drinks so strong she didn't even taste it. She was dead before I even took her outside. I had no idea what to do with her so I took her to the Hastings' yard. Like I said...I buried her like I watched her bury you," Bethany snickered darkly. Alison's knees buckled and Spencer nearly fell trying to hold her up. The whole thing just seemed to amuse Bethany, not a trace of remorse in her voice or on her face.

"You're insane," Hanna breathed, slowly backing away from Bethany who just laughed again in response. At hearing her laugh, Alison managed to regain her strength and break free of Spencer's hold, lunging at Bethany. In one swift movement, Bethany stepped out of her way, reached into the pocket of her jacket, and pulled out a handgun. She pointed it at Alison and glared at her.

"I wouldn't try that again if I were you," she snarled. Alison stared at the gun and quickly put her hands up, walking back to join her friends. The girls drew closer together now, each shaking at the sight of the gun. Bethany looked at their stunned, terrified faces and cackled.

"Oh God, you guys are making this too easy! One big target!" she exclaimed, the manic tone returning to her voice. She seemed inhuman.

"What do you mean one big target?" Emily asked.

"Well see...I can't have you all going back down there and telling everyone everything I've told you. I know you're all good at keeping secrets but come on...how can I trust you with this one?" she asked, waving the gun around wildly. Alison looked at Spencer and saw her eyes following the gun in the air and reached for her hand.

"Don't even think about it," she hissed, trying to be quiet but Bethany heard and her head whipped around to look at Spencer.

"Were you gonna try to be a hero, Spence? Tackle me, get the gun?" she laughed and loaded the gun with a distinct clicking noise.

"Guess you're first then," she said raising the gun and pointing it directly at Spencer. She took a step forward but before she could get any further, a dark blurry figure had come out of nowhere and tackled her to the ground.

"I thought I took care of you!" Bethany screamed. The girls all stood there, stunned, staring at where the black hooded figure had Bethany pinned to the ground.

"Well you thought wrong. Let go of the gun, Bethany,"

"Charles?" Spencer exclaimed. He raised his head and looked back at her over his shoulder and for a moment she forgot he wasn't actually Wren. The look he was giving her reminded her of how she'd known him before. Before she'd found out about Charles earlier that night. But she was snapped out of her thoughts when Bethany struck him across the face, hard.

She rolled him off of her and scrambled to her feet, now shakily pointing the gun at him.

"Charlie...I thought we were on the same side," she said. But her voice didn't portray hurt. It sounded crazed and angry.

"Bethany, let them go. Please, think about what you're doing!" he yelled back.

"I have! I've thought about this for a long time!" she retorted, her hand starting to shake dangerously with the gun in her hand.

The girls watched horrified as Charles made a grab for the gun, wrestling Bethany to the floor again in an attempt to get it away from her. She hit him again but this time they stayed on the ground, a tangle of limbs in black and red. In all the commotion the gun flew to the side as they continued their fight. Spencer ran forward and picked it up before anyone could stop her and held onto it, out in front of her, not wanting it to go off.

Bethany managed to get out from under Charles and ran full force at Spencer, knocking her to the ground, easily taking the gun back from her and standing up. She was out of breath and looking wildly at Spencer, her hand hovering above the trigger.

"Please. Please don't," Spencer choked out, her heart feeling as though it would pound out of her chest. She saw Charles walking up slowly behind Bethany and tried not to let her expression show it. Bethany just let out a laugh as Spencer squeezed her eyes shut. But as she was about to pull down the trigger, she felt Charles come up behind her and spun around. Spencer heard an earsplitting bang, her friends' screams, and a body hitting the ground all at once. Her eyes sprang open and she felt sick at the sight in front of her. Bethany stood over Charles, the gun still pointed at him, as the Liars all held onto one another looking horrified. Bethany's eyes were dark and her face bore no expression as she stared down at Charles' unmoving body.

"No!" Spencer cried out, scrambling up and running over to him, dropping down by his side. The girls all followed and Bethany took a step back, now seemingly in disbelief at what she'd done.

"What did you do?" Spencer cried, her eyes filling with tears as she looked back at Bethany who stood there stunned. Charles let out a low groan and Spencer jumped, rolling him over to see his face. He was clutching his stomach, blood already covering his hand from the wound.

"Call 9-1-1!" Spencer exclaimed. The girls all nodded and took a couple steps back, all of them getting onto their phones. Spencer looked backwards at Bethany but saw no one.

"She's gone!" Aria called out, seemingly noticing this at the same time. Spencer looked around frantically but couldn't see Bethany anywhere.

"Spencer..." Charles choked out in a gravelly voice. She looked down at him and let out a uncontrollable sob at the look on his face. He looked like the Wren she knew.

"It's okay," she said quietly, trying to comfort him. He shook his head and grabbed her hand with his that wasn't covering his wound.

"I'm sorry," he breathed out. She nodded and swallowed hard.

"I know," she said softly. He closed his eyes and exhaled sharply before opening them again.

"I never w-wanted to hurt you. I know I-I've d-done some bad things. And lied to a lot of people but-" he took a deep, shuddering breath, "I promise everything I've ever s-said to you w-was true. I really..." he stopped short and he drew another shaking breath, his face contorting in pain and his eyes flying shut.

"Wren! Charles, Charles, wake up!" Spencer exclaimed, tears streaming down her face. Upon hearing this Alison ran over and dropped down on the other side of him.

"Charles?" she distressingly asked, shaking him gently. He moaned but his eyes remained shut.

"Charles, no!" Alison cried, tears filling her own eyes.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, looking down at where he lay still. They all jumped as a police siren sounded and red and blue flashing lights filled the sky.

"This is Rosewood PD, are you alright up there?" Came a voice over a loudspeaker. Alison and Spencer scrambled up and with the other girls, made their way over to the railing. From the roof of the school, they could see four police cars had pulled up and were shining their lights up at the girls.

"We're up here! We need help! Someone's been shot!" Emily called back to them.

"We're sending people up now!" the man in charge called back through the speaker.

"Please hurry!" Aria called out. They saw a handful of cops run into the school's entrance and turned back around towards the door, but what they saw caused their panic to come back.

"Where's Charles?" Hanna asked shakily, eyeing the spot where Charles had been lying only a minute before. The only evidence he'd been there at all was a tiny blood stain, standing out dark red against the pale concrete ground.

"What? He has to be up here!" Spencer exclaimed, running over to the spot where he'd been. They all looked around frantically, but the only people on the roof were the five of them.

"He's gone..." Aria said. They were interrupted when the door to the roof flew open, the cops bursting onto the rooftop, flashlights out. The girls ran over to them and the questions and answers began. As the Liars attempted to tell the cops everything that happened, they couldn't help but feel a sense of relief, as they were finally able to get out everything they'd been holding in for so long. However, at the same time they couldn't shake the ominous feeling that the game wasn't nearly over. No one had won or lost and in their experience that definitely meant that they were still playing the game.

 **Note: We hope you enjoyed our alternate chapter! Let us know what you think!**

 **Kisses-**

 **R &W**


	2. BONUS

_To Whoever Finds This,_

 _If you're reading this, that means she got me. It means she found out who I was, that I've been onto her all these years. I remember that day...I was so young but yet it's the most vivid memory I have._

 _I'd been in foster care since I was born, my parents gave me up when I was a baby and they were in such a rush to do so, they just dropped me at the foster care center without a second thought. I was okay with it though, I didn't know any other kind of life. And because there were so many kids in the foster care home, I had to grow up a lot faster than most. I'd taught myself to read by my fourth birthday and I was always way more aware of my surroundings than other people my age. I was content with my life until my world got turned upside down when a family was finally interested in me. They came and visited every week and although it was nice to have some attention, I was nervous about leaving the life I'd become so used to. My hesitation ended, however, as soon as SHE showed up._

 _The day before she got there, I heard all the older kids talking about how she was coming in because her dad had monsters in his head and they caused him to die. I knew there was something off about the whole thing and from the second she stepped foot into the foster home, I knew there was something off about her too. Wherever she went and whatever she did, it seemed like trouble always followed. She never really made any friends because of how mean she was to the other kids. Every week she had a new favorite victim to pick on. Her favorite insult was "freak", which is ironic since that term was best suited for her. The only time she was on good behavior was when a blonde woman and her kids would come and visit. At the time I thought maybe they were related to her somehow...she was scared of the woman._

 _Her victim the week of the incident was Holly Smith. Bethany had been picking on her all week long and Holly had just put her head down and taken it. It seemed like Holly was going to get through her week of torture fairly unscathed until Friday night. On Friday night we were all sitting around the living room, which was attached to the kitchen while the lady in charge was making us spaghetti. A baby started crying upstairs and she rushed off to help, leaving us all alone. Bethany started picking on Holly but this time Holly stood up for herself. She told Bethany to leave her alone and called her a freak. I'd never seen anyone look so angry before as Bethany did. She pushed Holly, hard, back into the kitchen island...which contained the stove. Holly hit the counter and fell back against it, which caused the giant pot of scathingly hot boiling water to fall off the stove and onto her. I can still hear the agonized screams and cries that came from her as she sat on the floor, writhing in pain. But that wasn't the scariest part... Where most kids would have realized the horror of what they'd done and tried to help, Bethany just stood there. She stared down at Holly with a sick grin of satisfaction on her face, her eyes dark and soulless. All the other older kids started trying to help Holly but Bethany didn't even move aside to grant them easier access, she continued to stare down with that horrible look on her face until the woman in charge came back and started hysterically yelling her head off. Bethany was sent away the very next day._

 _The memory of that day is forever branded in my mind. I don't think I'll ever be able to unsee the images or unhear the sounds. Soon after, I found out that the family that had been coming to visit me wanted to adopt me. It couldn't have come at a better time, since after the Incident I was completely traumatized. The family was really nice and I even found out they owned their own apple farm._

 _After they adopted me, I adjusted pretty quickly. They became my family and we all loved each other like it had been that way the whole time. But while I was happy with my new life, I never forgot the Incident, it still haunted me as I grew up. Even thought I was very intellectually advanced for my age, I was held back two years because it was hard for me to make friends and be at school all day. Everything scared me. I couldn't shake the feeling that I never really escaped Bethany or that day. I was always waiting for her to reappear and cause history to repeat itself...but this time I wouldn't just sit there and watch. The next time, I would be one step ahead of her and make sure she never hurt anyone else ever again._

 _One day at school, I recognized the blonde woman and two of her kids. The girl, Alison, was even in my class. I never asked her about Bethany but I always knew in the back of my mind that the DiLaurentis family must have known what I knew. Fast forward years later, when Alison disappeared I immediately came to my own conclusion of who was behind it. I kept the promise I'd made to myself and vowed to find out what was really going on. I befriended Alison's friends to try to see if they knew anything about the family or Bethany but they didn't. I couldn't tell them about Bethany and what I knew but I tried to leave clues to help them realize it on their own. But I was always careful to make sure I looked like I was one step behind them, always there._

 _Through my own research I found out that a girl named Sara Harvey disappeared the same night as Alison. Then when "Bethany's" body was discovered, I knew it couldn't have been Bethany. The press said the body was Alison's age but I knew that Bethany was older than me so it couldn't have been her body. But, Sara was the same age as Alison. After that, I was absolutely sure that Bethany was behind everything. I made it my mission to find her and get answers whatever the cost, to help save innocent people involved in whatever game Bethany was playing._

 _The dots are finally connecting, and things are finally starting to come together. Earlier this afternoon, I intercepted a phone call between the Hastings' family and managed to hack into a surveillance camera that's registered to an unsettlingly familiar address. I know my way around this place, it shouldn't be hard to navigate it once I get there...afterall I grew up there. The only problem is, I don't know, nor do I want to imagine, what Bethany is capable of now that she's all grown up. If you are reading this, that means I was unsuccessful in stopping the one person I knew was behind it all...if you're reading this, she stopped me..._

 _-Paul Varjack_

 **Note: Hey everyone, thanks for reading! We hope you enjoyed! We decided to add this mini chapter as a little bonus to further explain part of the story. Let us know what you think!**

 **XO**

 **R &W**


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